Jun 25, 2018
Dale Carnegie was the author of the book How to Win Friends & Influence People, one of the best-selling self-help books of all time. Perhaps surprisingly, Carnegie was born into poverty in Missouri. As a boy, Carnegie won friends through his knack with words. At various assemblies he attended in high school, he became inspired by speakers, and joined the school’s debate team. During his horse rides to college, he practiced his speeches and style.
After graduating, Carnegie’s various jobs as a traveling salesman earned him enough to quit his job and move to New York City to try his luck as an actor. He landed a leading role in Polly of the Circus, which allowed him to continue practicing his public speaking skills. However, he hated acting itself, so he enlisted in the army instead, before working as a business manager of a traveling lecture course taught by Lowell Thomas.
When Carnegie realized that his skill at public speaking was what helped him succeed as a traveling salesman, he successfully pitched the idea to teach public speaking to adults at the YMCA in New York. His classes were an immediate success because he focused on their personal stories.
Importantly, Carnegie realized that the most successful business people in any given industry weren’t those with the most technical know-how, but rather those with the best people skills. He noticed that no textbook existed on the subject, and after years of intense research, he finally published his famous book How to Win Friends & Influence People.
In today’s episode, you’ll learn Carnegie’s three-step magic formula. First, incident: what’s the specific incident that you want to be talking about? Second, action: what’s the action you want your audience to take because of what they learned from that incident? Third, benefit: what’s the benefit your audience will gain as a result of taking that action? Tune into this conversation to learn more about how this formula works, why Carnegie was so successful at what he did, and much more!
In This Episode:
[02:40] - Alex talks about the three critical insights that you’ll learn all about in today’s episode.
[03:31] - We learn a basic biography of Dale Carnegie, the author of How to Win Friends & Influence People.
[04:45] - Alex continues the story of Carnegie, talking about the high school assemblies that he attended.
[06:08] - After college, Carnegie took a job as a traveling salesman. Alex explores the next steps of Carnegie’s life.
[07:49] - Alex talks about why Carnegie’s classes were an immediate success.
[09:10] - We learn that Carnegie spent the next two decades gradually refining his curriculum to meet the needs of his students.
[10:04] - Alex talks about where the title of Carnegie’s famous book came from.
[11:15] - Any time Alex is feeling low or in a rut with his business or mindset, he watches biographies of successful people.
[12:10] - What was the magic formula that Carnegie taught thousands, and now millions know?
[13:12] - Alex explores one of the biggest challenges that he has with many TED Talks.
[14:22] - We hear a story about two speakers of antiquity.
[15:03] - Here’s the Alexism for today’s episode: you can’t be 100% committed sometimes.
[15:42] - Alex goes through a quick review of the insights that he has explored throughout this episode.
[16:54] - Please head over to this link, where you can type in your biggest takeaway from this episode as a review, as well as rate the episode.
[17:58] - In honor of this 15th episode, you’re welcome to a completely free copy of Alex’s book Alexisms! Why pay for it when you can get it for free? To learn how to get yours, tune into this episode!
Links and Resources:
Skipio - where mass business texting gets personal!
How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie
Public Speaking and Influencing Men in Business by Dale Carnegie
Lincoln the Unknown by Dale Carnegie
Little Known Facts About Well Known People by Dale Carnegie
Five Minute Biographies by Dale Carnegie
Biographical Roundup by Dale Carnegie